Polish Parliament Votes 240-202 to Freeze Crypto Before Judicial Review

Poland's lower house, the Sejm, voted 240-202 to let government officials freeze crypto assets before any court reviews the decision. The bill authorizes the interior minister to place individuals and entities on a public national sanctions list, either on the minister's own initiative or at the request of agencies that include the financial watchdog, the central bank, the financial intelligence unit and the internal security service.

The listed grounds are specific. They include supporting a country already under EU sanctions, committing serious human rights abuses, and initiating or financing information manipulation that poses a serious threat to Poland's national security. That last ground demands a showing of a real and serious threat to Poland's interests, borders, security or elections — a threshold the bill states but does not define in operational terms. The text carves out ordinary journalism, political speech and publishing, unless the activity is a knowing campaign of the kind the law describes.

How does the freeze actually work?

The interior minister's decision takes effect the day after it is posted in the ministry's Public Information Bulletin, and it is immediately enforceable. There is no mechanism to ask the minister to reconsider. A listed person may file a complaint with an administrative court, but the law says the decision remains in force until a judgment becomes final. The bill also sets aside the usual rule that would let a court pause a challenged order while the case proceeds.

The measures go beyond freezing. They bar making funds or property available to listed persons and can exclude them from public contracts. In some cases the economy minister may appoint a temporary administrator to sell frozen assets or, under a separate order, take them over for the State Treasury. In plain words, the state can liquidate or absorb the property before the listed party wins, if it ever wins, its day in court.

What does this mean for bitcoin holders?

The bill does not target ordinary bitcoin holders in Poland. It reaches crypto assets owned, held or under the control of people and firms on the sanctions list. Banks, exchanges and other obliged parties face administrative fines if they fail to freeze those assets or make them available. Compliance falls to the financial intelligence unit and the Polish Financial Supervision Authority for the firms they already oversee.

Notably, the text does not describe any way for officials to obtain the keys to coins held in self-custody. The practical enforcement path runs through exchanges, custodians and other obliged institutions that can actually stop a transfer. That gap is not an oversight the bill acknowledges; it is simply not addressed, and unhostodied wallets sit largely outside the mechanism.

Will the bill survive the Senate and the president?

The bill still has to clear the Senate and President Karol Nawrocki's desk. That path is not guaranteed. Nawrocki refused to sign a separate crypto-assets market bill the Sejm passed on May 15, and lawmakers failed in September to override that veto, voting 241-198. He had also vetoed earlier versions of the market bill, arguing the rules went too far.

That earlier fight concerned licensing and supervision under the EU's crypto-assets rulebook, not sanctions enforcement, so it is an imperfect guide to this vote. Still, it establishes that the president will use his veto on crypto legislation he considers excessive. Whether the Senate trims the pre-court freeze, and whether Nawrocki signs a sanctions law that reaches bitcoin, is the question the bill now leaves open.

The structural point deserves emphasis. Poland's proposal inverts the conventional sequence in which a court validates a deprivation of property before it takes effect; here the freeze precedes and survives judicial scrutiny until a final judgment. Advocates of the carve-outs for journalism and political speech may note that those protections are exceptions to a listed-ground regime, not limits on listing itself. The Senate's review is the next checkpoint, and no timetable for its vote has been announced.